Motorcycle Repair: bike maint., harley softail heritage classic, softail heritage classic

Question
i own a 2003 harley softail heritage classic. i bought it brand new in march of last year.
unfortunately, due to circumstances beyond my control i did not winterize the bike properly. The bike has 890 miles on it and the oil has never been changed. I would like to know since i did not winterize the bike, what should i look out for or do to prepare for this years riding ?

thank you

Answer
Hi Carlo.
 Well, as far as the oil, It won't hurt that it wasn't changed, but you should do it anyway.  At the very least, you will have a rough running bike because of fuel residue from evaporation (yes, Fuel can and does evaporate).  You may need the carb pulled and completely cleaned.  What you may want to do is see if the bike will fire up.  If it does, then get the absolute best carb cleaning fuel treatment and pour the whole bottle in the tank.  I used the fuel treatment from STP made with jet fuel and it has worked wonders for me, but it is not a fix-all.

As I said, There could be problems with the bike starting up.  This will be because of the fuel residue from the afoementioned evaporation.  If it runs, but runs rough, get the carb cleaned properly and that should fix it.

You will have to replace the battery, most likely.  Test the cells with a hygrometer.  If any are bad, replace the battery,  There is no saving it at that point.

Drop a tablespoonfull of oil into the cylinders the night before you try to start the bike.  It will coat the walls and prevent any damage on initial post-storage startup, since it wasn't done before storage.  You'll get some blue smoke at start-up, but that will go away soon enough.

One last thing.  Next year, when you prep the bike empty it of fuel and run the fuel completely out of the system.  Every year someone writes in about how they used a fuel stabilizer and now their carbs are gummed up.  Those stabilizers are useless in my opinion.

That should cover it.
Good luck.
FALCON